This press release by wotif.com has been an extremely successful branding exercise with media in each geographical location across the country putting their own positive spin on the results.
We note that the results have also caused some bickering between regions and outbursts from regional tourism officials. The free publicity must be music to wotif.com's ears.
We were amused to read that Nelson Tasman Tourism chief executive Paul Davis was somewhat sniffy about Nelson's result at number 11 on wotif's most popular NZ locations booked online. He compared the result with a more favorable survey released by the Tourism Industry Association New Zealand (TIA) in October last year that ranked Nelson in the top-5 of people's favourite regions.
What is interesting with the difference in rankings is the old adage that people will often say one thing while their actions do something completely different.
Ironically, Paul Davis appears to be beating himself up over this and has claimed that wotif.com's survey is not reliable. And has said: "The rankings were based on the number of last-minute accommodation bookings that Wotif had on their site, not the desirability of the city. It's not significant as far as the overall quality of the destination".
We love Nelson and like many other Kiwis we would love to visit more often, however the region's desirability on its own does not deliver benefits to Nelsonians - actual guest nights do.
Paul Davis may need to work a wee bit harder at his job of converting the region's desirability into a reason for visitors to stay the night - after all, that's what he is paid to do...
Source: Click HERE
